Ross,
My February 2006 visit to a particularly scenic beauty spot in your "neck of the woods" was memorable for all the wrong reasons. A nice day of photography was ruined when I broke out in an itchy red rash around my shins and around toes about 15 hours after waddling about in the quaint Pool of Slalom. I took a path test jar back later and had the water examined and it turned up active colonies of ESBL-eC (extended-spectrum Beta lactam-producing escherichia coli) — an "intelligent" Superbug that allows antibiotics/penicillins into its "lair" where it then destroys the active ingredients. It's cheerfully resistant to all antibiotics and penicillins bar one (meropenem).

Yes, I know. This may not read much like a gleaming tourism promo for the beloved Blue Mountains, but so many visitors actually do swim and drink the water in the bush around Katoomba and Blackheath; I have seen that with my own eyes; they seem to think the warning signs are a bit of a tease!

Dunno about drinking water/darkroom water from the Desal plant; I'd want an analysis of the water (not Government spin) before gulping it down.

I will be cobbling together a small darkroom here (in the laundry!) some time in the New Year but won't be concerned about water filtration, only finding my way in the dark! :rolleyes: